dieffenbachia

About Me

I don't have a definitive answer for my skin problems, but after 16 years of trying to resolve my teenage and then adult acne there are a few things that I can recommend and a few things that exacerbate my acne.

I think my acne is largely hormonal because it worsens around ovulation and responds to stress and exercise (related to androgen production)

Possible exacerbators:STRESSMy skin reacts to stress MASSIVELY. If I keep the stress down, my skin is calmer (I am a mild acne sufferer).HIGH GII'm not 100% on this, but I have noticed that during periods of eating less crap (I'm an all or nothing gal: I tend to binge eat or binge diet i.e. cut out all processed, sugary foods) my skin has been less bad. For example, when I tend to cut out anything with massively high sugar content (i'm talking chocolate, doughnuts, biscuits, cakes, sweets etc), my skin thanks me for it.However, I tend to binge when I'm stressed so it's hard to disentangle stress from high GI.

Good things for my skin:EXERCISESLEEPHYDRATIONI should note here that eating healthily per se has never stopped a breakout, it's cutting out the highly sugary foods which I've noticed has helped the most.

Initially my skin reacted badly to lots of exercise, however, after about 3 weeks of CV and weights I noticed an improvement in my skin clarity (this could be directly due to the exercise or also due to more hydration and/or eating more healthily and/or sleeping better).

*** see also below for my history of medications for what I've tried and which worked best (none were HGs)

Retaining some control/reducing severity of breakoutsI'm not sure how to prevent acne coming (I've not found any HG solution really) but salicylic acid has been very helpful to reduce the severity and frequency of breakouts.

I feel that the two products below are awesome in helping to clear up blemishes quickly.

On the spot treatments only - not recommended for all over face applicationI used to use sudocrem only, which is great but only directly on the spot - slathering it all over the face may clog the skin - but benzoyl peroxide provides additional bactericidal power (die beasties, die).

BP can be drying, use with a good moisturiser and effective SPF during the day.

HealingUnfortunately, with some forms of acne (cystic acne especially) a scar may form but I feel that the way to diminish the appearance/severity of the scar is to keep the area moist while the skin is healing. Even if a scab forms, I was recommended not to pick this but keep moisturising. This allows the skin to heal smoothly under the scab.I still get cystic acne occasionally and the way I deal with it is to try to stop it from getting inflamed (no poking/prodding/squeezing) and BP the beast like crazy! As it is healing I also like to moisturise as much as possible.

Avoid-picking nodular/cystic acne - LEAVE ALONE (unless it has come to a head and then I will very gently apply pressure around the sides with a clean tissue or muslin cloth. Sometimes this will get the pus out and then helps the skin heal better)-picking scabs-scrubs or any abrasive lotion/brush/towel etc

Why the latter?a) They irritate the skin and can hurtb) They increase oil production (for me)c) I think they contribute to scarring if not used properly (I think a large amount of my scarring could have been avoided had I not used an abrasive scrubber)

I now use a BHA as my exfoliant - far less irritating and no physical damage to skin = calmer and happier skin.If you have to use an abrasive, no matter how bad your skin is, please don't do what I did and rub away at it as hard as possible. I wanted my skin to improve so much that I rubbed until I bled...I think this strategy may have contributed to ice pick and boxcar scarring on my face. So PLEASE try not to do this, no matter the temptation!

Acne historyI used to suffer from mild acne with low inflammation and then suddenly within a month my skin went mental and I became a moderate/severe acne sufferer for about 3-4 years.Beyond the age of 21 my cystic/nodular acne had calmed to a few blackheads and the odd pustule every month or so.

This remained the case until a couple of years ago when I hit a bad bout of cysts and nodules (the inflammation was never massively severe, though it was itchy).

Current skin & regimeOver the last year my skin calmed a bit so that I was probably getting a nodule once a month.On the other hand I get new pustules, whiteheads and blackheads everyday.

Yes good luck to you too! I just had a really rough night actually.My sister is visiting for xmas at the moment. I havent seen that much of her since I started on retinoids. I came downstairs after a shower, when my red marks can look a little worse and with no make up... She looked at my face as was like "Oh God, have you been picking at your face? that looks so sore.... awww" I just wanted to burst into tears... I know how bad it looks I just dont really need others making me feel anymore aware or self-conscious about it! I was meant to be meeting up with some friends but I just couldnt face going out, I stayed in and cried about it... what a dickhead (myself not my sister).

Argh! family! Although she wasn't trying to be mean, a bit of sensitivity wouldn't have hurt?! Couldn't agree more with Paul, quite often it might feel like the best thing to do is to hide but then you can spend the time dwelling on your skin. Conversely, if you're out with your mates, you will likely forget about it! Though totally know it's sooooooo difficult to pick yourself up from a putdown (even unmeant) in one day. I dunno if it will help to know this, but I had really bad acne with a lot of inflammation and redness but this lasted, at most, a year. Since then it has only improved, to the point now where people cannot tell I had an acne problem. I can wholeheartedly promise you that this is just a bad skin period and it will finish!Go pamper yourself the next time you feel knocked down: I like to have a warm bath and then put on some luscious body moisturiser and then watch a movie

Have a great Christmas day, enjoy the lunch and booze! Got anything nice planned for NYE?

Hey I've just read your entire blog - it's been quite a story - and I wanted to reply (sorry for the length).Thank you so much for the consistent updates. It has been captivating reading and while it's horrible to read you go through the ups and downs, and have the same feelings that a lot of us have felt, it's vicariously cathartic to come to the last post to know that you have found an overall improvement, subjectively and objectively.From your photos your skin looks like it has improved greatly since the IB. It's looking a lot less inflamed and the spots are smaller.

You probablly have honed your routine after trying different things but thought I'd mention a couple of things that helped me over the years.A long time ago I was put on acnisal cleanser which was ok, it didn't stop spots forming but I think it lessened the rate of breakouts plus is quite cheap (you can get your gp to prescribe up to three month supply on one prescription which means that 3 cost the price of a prescription ~ £7.40 which may work out cheaper than your simple wash).This has salicylic acid in it so it may inflame more for you if you've not had good experience with this.

After 7 years I've now stopped mainly because I was worried about getting tinnitus from long term use (one of the side effects).Moreover, it wasn't a HG for me so I forked out for dermal clay cleanser from dermalogica - it has calmed down breakouts more but again no HG so I use BP on the spots that do erupt which appear to shrink them relatively quickly!Dermalogica producst are very expensive though I would say that a bottle that costs around £33.50 (500ml) lasts me around 3 months (which possibly works out less than what you save from not smoking so you'll have change for the pub ;p).

If you don't want to fork out for this bad-boy then I would recommend hot cloth cleansing which I have just started (about 2 months ago).I bought a whole load (12) of muslin cloths from johnlewis.com (these seemed to be the cheapest) and use one per face wash (morning and night) then I put in the laundry to be washed at weekend so that every time I'm using a clean cloth. This feels so nice to use plus I'm a bit ocd about cleanliness so psychologically I like having something clean everytime I wash.Plus they are cheaper for removing make-up because you don't have to buy cotton wool each time.

I agree totally with your sentiment about oral antibiotics in that I've found they don't work long term (I've tried more than 5 different oral ABs) and have a too many nasty side effects (thrush, photosensitivity, skin flaking, stomach cramps, to name a few). For me tetralysal helped but again was not a long term solution. As for topical antibiotics I've tried benzamycin (which has BP and clindamycin in it) which was such a pain because you have to keep in a fridge. It did bugger all for me really! I may have tried a whole lot of other things but will have to dig out my old diaries as this was a long time ago so will get back to you.

Are you using a moisturiser? It might help with the flakiness. I really like Paula's Choice hydrating repair or ren's clearcalm3 night serum...although both are expensive neither have made me break out. Also for natural alternative A'kin do some great products. Their hydracalm emergency relief gel may help inflammation too - it certainly helps me! Also I've read that to aid healing you should keep the skin moist, moist, moist! In the past I've used sudocrem - for me this is a wonder cream! It helps heal the spot, calm the inflammation, is good for moisture and also help healing. I use as a targeted treatment because it's pretty thick.

Keep going with your smoking quittage; smoking hinders the skin healing process as I think some of the chemicals in them either break down or speed the break down of collagen in the skin (either way, not good for healing acne scarring). Plus extra cash to spend on something nice .If you like wearing make up and haven't found it already you may like Cassandra Bankson's you tube blog about make up for acne prone skin:

Finally, may I say that even if sometimes you feel that the breakouts look unattractive, you are really pretty and have stunning eyes so try not to let the bad days get you too down!